1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, a microscope system, and an image processing method for processing a microscope observation image of a biological specimen.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, observation of biological specimens with a microscope has been conducted by selecting the kind of staining or the microscopy depending on the observation target or observation purpose (for example, see JP 2011-2341 A). For example, as the morphological observation dye used for observing the morphology of the tissue or the cell, Hematoxylin-Eosin stain (hereinafter, “HE stain”) which employs two pigments of hematoxylin and eosin, or non-fluorescent dye such as Papanicolaou stain (Pap dye) are known. The specimen stained with the morphology observation dye is generally subjected to bright-field observation using the transmission illumination with the use of an optical microscope.
In the pathological observation, staining called the specific staining or immunostaining may be conducted for compensating the lack of data in the morphological diagnosis based on the morphology information or for determining whether medicine administration is appropriate or not. For example, in the case of conducting the molecular pathological examination for diagnosing the functional abnormality such as the expression abnormality of a target molecule (particular gene or protein), the target molecule may be subjected to the fluorescence observation with the epi-illumination after the target molecule is marked (stained) with the fluorescence by the IHC (immunohistochemistry) method, the ICC (immunocytochemistry) method, the ISH (in-situ hybridization) method or the like, or subjected to the bright-field observation after the target molecule is marked with an enzyme.
The specific staining or immunostaining as above, however, require time and effort in preparing the specimen, which also increases the cost. For these reasons, a method has been examined in which the target tissue is observed without the use of such staining.
JP 2003-102671 A discloses an endoscope system for irradiating a biological tissue with a UV ray and detecting autofluorescence of the elastic fiber caused by the irradiation.